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A THEOREM 




ON 



PLANETARY MOTION 



OR 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 




=Ol 




By Clark Roberts, M. D. 



PKICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS 




ST. LOUIS, MO. : 

PRESS OF SLAWSON AND COMPANY, 

l88l. 




A 



THEOREM 



PLANETARY MOTION; 



OR 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. 



<1 






By Clark Roberts, M. D. 



ST. LOUIS, MO. : 

PRESS OF SLAWSON AND COMPANY, 

l88l. 



?4?k- 



Entered according Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by Clark Roberts, M. D. 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



»% 



Proposition and Preface. 



Theory is speculative ; a doctrine or scheme of things j an 
exposition of any Science — the Science distinguished from the 
Art. A Theorem is something to be proved. We here adopt 
the latter term, and have attempted to work it out. How well 
we have succeeded in our task we will leave the reader of the 
following pages to judge, hoping he will bear with our foibles, 
and will consider the points and proofs we have produced, bearing 
in mind that we have used only such material as came casually 
to hand in course of the common events of life. On this account 
we have been compelled to render this essay more brief than 
the subject would seem to demand; but " Such as I have, give I 
unto thee," in as concise a manner as the nature of the subject 
would permit, assuring you that such has been our observations 
and reflections in our converse with nature and the laws of mat- 
ter, as to almost compel us to commit our conclusions to paper, 
and finally to give them a publication for the consideration of such 
others as are disposed to speculate in thought or otherwise on 
matters of the nature of which we have written, and upon which 
we have so frequently pondered and reasoned so abstractly. If 
our evidences have been properly chosen and judiciously applied 
so as to be satisfactory, we have accomplished our design. But, 
if they are faulty or erroneously applied, then it is the privilege 
of such as will, to supply the defect or to correct the error, as the- 
case may demand. Our greatest desire has been, and is, to pro- 
duce facts, without fiction or guess-work ; and that those facts 
may be so arranged and brought before the mind of the present 
age as that the youth thereof may be benefited thereby. 

The Author. 



J 



'■- 



(^ 



THEOREM. 



Motion consists in a continued change of place, in regard to 
a fixed point, and is the result of force, either inherent or ap- 
plied, and may be direct or indirect, primary or secondary. 
Gravitation is a direct inherent force of the primary order. 
Eotation is the result of force applied, and is of the secondary 
order, as in the case of weight added to one side of a rotund 
body, that is well balanced on its central axis, so as to move 
with ease in either direction. Such body will always be found 
to rotate in the direction of added weight, which there becomes 
a force, resulting in the rotation of the body acted upon, and 
is therefore the rotating force of that body. Hence we speak 
of the movement as the force of rotation. Weight withdrawn 
from one side of the body in motion 'and would be attended with the 
same result, and the waste consequent upon the extraction 
would require a supply equal to itself in order to sustain the mo- 
tion; also a continuation of added force would be required on 
the other side. Then the two acting on the opposite sides would 
agree, and the motion would be perpetuated accordingly. 

Force is a generic term, and in this case implies power in 
motion, or in a state of activity, as in the case of propulsion or 
ejection. 

The Planets being composed of a mass of hetrogeneous ma- 
terial and perfectly inert, could never have acquired motion, 
unless acted upon by some force either primary or secondary, 
inherent or applied, or by both or all such forces combined, as 
by induction through the medium of external forces — such as 
gravitation, which we suppose to be mutual between all bodies, 
through an affinity of parts that inclines them toward each other, 
and thus determines a motion along the median line. Suppose 
we call this a concentric force, as it tends to draw both bodies to 
a common center. The others we may call a tangental force, 
from its outward action, and tendency to throw off at tengents 



to its surface all around the circle of its own action; and in ap- 
position to gravitation, to set up a centrifugal or projectile mo- 
tion, which has a tendency to deviate both forces from their 
primitive course, and if their forces are equal, the line of the re- 
sulting movement would be midway between the two original 
movements, and the momentum would be vastly increased there- 
by; whereas if the primitive force of gravitation was to act alone 
and unopposed by an outward tending force, the sun by its im- 
mense size and centeral attraction would soon bring the scattered 
planets and their satelites together upon his surface, and a gen- 
eral collapse of worlds would be the inevitable result. But as 
the universe is arranged, the outward tending force of rotation 
acting in a direction at right angles to that of gravitation, not 
only sustains it in position, but increases the projectile power 
and momentum of the body many times more than either the 
gravitation or the rotation could seperately have produced. 

Those two forces acting in different directions upon the 
same body do so combine their powers as to throw the planets 
upon lines of motion that never end, and have no abrupt change, 
and thus to develope in nature that harmony of motion, amid 
the vast expanse of systems suns and worlds with their satelites, 
as to insure an eternal round succession of times, periods and 
cycles forever. 

Of gravitation as a force we have some idea, but of the ori- 
gin, or cause of such a force we.can only speculate or philosophize, 
and we are compelled at last to fall back on the idea of an inherent 
principle in matter as a solution of a problem so abstruse. 
While of the force of rotation when applied to the worlds we 
know as little as of any other force whatever, yet we have good 
reasons for knowing more, but have overlooked them in specula- 
tive theories, and finaly settled down on the idea of a primitive im- 
pulse, as the origin of all these forces, and now ascribe all those 
movements to an "original" or a primitive impulse, commun- 
icated at the "beginning" " when first ushered into space." Such 
are the teahings of most of those who have written upon these 
matters, even to this age. 

Wm. Burrett in his Geography of the Heavens, (p. 271), 
while speaking of the forces, says of them (the centripetal and 



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tlie catrifugal), " the one tending to the center of the sun, and 
the other in the direction of a tangent to its orbit, arising from 
the primitive impulse given at the time it was launched in- 
to space." " The former is called the contripetal, the other the 
contrifugal force." 

What this primitive impulse consisted of, or how applied, 
few (very few) have attempted to determine, but from what has 
been written, we would be inclined to suppose it to have been of 
the character of a forcible knock, push, or throw by the hand of 
the Creator, or many have been by the breath of his mouth, 
blown out into space, (the latter would be the most plausible), 
rather than by the establishing of natural and inherent principles, 
or laws of ponderable or imponderable, chemical, electric, or 
electro-magnetic, or any other means arising in matter itself, by 
which to perpetuate rotation, projection and orbital momenta. 

But nature's laws and forces are ever constant in cause as 
well as in effect. There must, therefore, be an as efficient a 
cause for the rotation of the earth and other planets on their ax- 
es and in their orbits, as there is for their gravitation, or for the 
succession of day and night, or summer and winter where they 
occur. The movement of a body in space as well as in connec- 
tion with another structure, can only be effected by physical 
forces, in an active state. 

The attraction of gravitation is a universal force, ever con- 
stant and unvarying in its effect; always equalling the quantity of 
matter, and is as unvarying as the amount of matter acted upon 
— ever equalling the square of its djstance and the amount of 
matter. 

Eotation is as assuredly the result of force properly applied, 
as the contripetal force is the result of gravitation. In a recent 
work by Wm. Ogilby Esq., A. M., of Trinity College, Camb., 
etc., entitled a new theory of the figure of the earth, etc., and 
on pages 50, 51, I find him to say of rotation: " How or whence 
that rotary motion was communicated, we have no means even 
to conjecture." He continues : " Physical nature provides no 
force adequate to produce it, and we are therefore compelled to 
fall back on the idea of a great First Cause of the nature of vo- 
lition, superior to, and unconnected with the material world." He 



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then continues: " Here at least we have direct proof of the com- 
mencement of a new epoch in the history of our planet ; of a 
mighty revolution produced by the agency of a non-physical 
cause which put an end to a previously existing order of things, 
and introduced a new world and new condition of existence," 
etc. 

Such are the teachings of a professor of our own time and 
age 7 and on page 101, (same author) occurs a quotation from 
Laplace's Hypothesis, as follows : 

"When a body receives an impression in a direction passing 
through its center of gravity, all its parts move with the same veloc- 
ity ; if this direction pass at some distance from that point the dif- 
ferent parts of the body have unequal velocities and a motion of rota- 
tion is produced about the center of gravity, at the same time that 
this point itself is transported with the velocity which it would have 
acquired had the direction of the impression passed directlythrough 
it. This is the case with the earth and planets. Thus, in order to ex- 
plain the double movement oi rotation and translation, it is suffi- 
cient to suppose that the earth received its primitive impulse in a 
direction which passed at some little distance from the center of grav- 
ity ; a distance which on the hypothesis of homogeneity would have 
been about the 160th part of its radius — about twenty-five miles." 

Mr. Ogilby says of this, however : 

"This assumption is evidently made in the interest of mathe- 
matical science alone and without reference to the principles of phys- 
ical philosophy. It is one of the many devices by which analysts 
seek to generalize and consolidate their processes ; but it is faulty 
in logic and contradicted by phenomena." 

It will thus be seen that no one has yet discovered any law 
or force, other than " primitive impulse/' by which rotation and 
the consequent projection of the heavenly bodies was produced, 
or is yet perpetuated. 

Now it is a self evident fact, that there is a natural law in 
the construction of all material things, for the sustenance, prop- 
agation and perpetuity of the same; that said law does control, 
direct, and sustain the substance to which it is inherent; 
that this same law also originates with the substance itself, and ac- 
companies it through the period of its existence; and where such a 
succession is necessary in the nature of the substance or thing, that 
the same law provides the necessary means for that end. So also in 



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the contruction of the inanimate, we find the same natural law 
as active and as constant as in the animate, and when we pass in 
observation to the eternal structures, the worlds and systems 
above and around us, we find the same universal laws sustaining, 
directing and controling all in their regular order ', and we have 
but to search for and to find that or those laws, in order to com- 
prehend their workings. 

If I fail to find the light, that is no reason that I should say 
there is none, and deny its existence to others, because I have 
none in me. It is even so with Ogilbe and Laplace. They have 
searched for the cause, and failing to find it, have fallen back on 
a presumption that there is none, and hence ascribe all to an 
imaginary primitive impulse, and say there is none other; we are 
compelled to adopt this because we can find no other cause. 

Let us return to nature's laws and scrutinize their workings 
a while and then decide for ourselves how this is. We inferred 
above that Nature's laws and workings were harmonious, and 
so we still contend. We recapitulate : There is a natural law in 
the movement of all the heavenly bodies, and for the perpetua- 
tion of all other things in nature, and that those laws were created 
at the same time with the creature or thing ) and, as impulse 
is not a law, but a force — momentary, as it were, acting but once 
and then ceasing — it must follow, that a law for a continued 
movement was established at the same time of the creation . In 
this case a law harmonizing with that of gravitation and equally 
constant with it, would be required in order to the perpetual and 
proper motion of the heavenly bodies, and that that law produced 
the movement then, and has perpetuated it since, and will contin- 
ue co-existent with the world's existence. 

Our object in this present writing is to develope principles 
which may lead to the discovery of that law, to-wit : the law pro- 
ducing rotation, in the spheres ; for in this, the law of projection 
depends for its support and perpetuity. An equally divided force 
applied to the opposite sides of a well balanced wheel and from 
the same direction could never produce rotation ; whereas, if on- 
ly a portion of the same force be applied continuously to one 
side only, the wheel will rotate freely. It is by the increment of 
force on the one side and the decrement on the other side of a well- 



-10- 

balanced wheel or round body, that the best examples of rotation 
are produced. Hence, if water be directed in a current upon a 
suitable wheel, near the top, and be allowed to fall off at the bot- 
tom, the motion will be in an exact ratio to the radius of the 
wheel and the stream of water; and the motion will be contin- 
uous and even. Here we would have a constant and equal amount 
of force on the one side, and the withdrawal of the water at the 
point where the force is expended j consequently a constant ro- 
tative force that is equal and even, and resisted only by the 
gravity of the rising side of the wheel and the friction of its parts 
in motion. 

JSTow this is very similar to the action of the earth and oth- 
er planets less the friction ; for it is very plausible to suppose 
that the same means are at work on all those bodies, the prima- 
ries, at all events. Of the satelites or secondaries, we will have 
something to say elsewhere, when treating of their motions and 
forces. All projectiles are found to move in the air or through 
vacancy with their heavy parts in front, or foremost, while their 
lighter parts follow. Mechanics make use of this law in the 
construction of projectiles, as in gunnery and other mechanical 
devices where it applies, and have profited thereby. 

We have many reasons for supposing that the earth and 
other planets are acted upon by forces not unlike that of the 
wheel and the projectile in the atmosphere or in space, which 
we will portray and delineate more at length further on; but 
for the present we will only say, it is our intention to bring 
to view forces that do produce effects on the earth and plan- 
ets similar to those spoken of in the above remarks, to-wit : 
the producing of a heavy and alight side; the one upon the side 
of the earth that is moving in toward the sun, and the other on 
the side that is moving out from it, and all at fixed rates, and 
distances — always twelve hours apart — but ever constant in 
those relative positions ; a heavy side always six hours in ad- 
vance of, and a light side at the same distance always six hours 
behind the sun's apparent position in space at all times and in 
all parts of our circle of motion. The earth's or planet's rota- 
tive force must ever equal the sun's central attraction in order to 
perpetuate the orbital circuit of the earth or planet, and to sus- 



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tain it there perpetually. Hence we perceive that the projectile 
force of rotation being equal to the sun's centrepital, or central 
force of attraction, they balance each other, and a perpetual and 
reciprocal action ensues, as the result. Hence, again, there must 
be as constant and never failing a source and supply for the ro- 
tation as there is for the gravitation, else this condition could 
not continue. This source, we think, we may find in the sun's 
ray, by its action upon t^e atmosphere, and water surface of the 
earth, and whatever Ave find here, in this respect, we may reasona- 
bly suppose to operate in like manner on all the planets. 

Now, for the better illustration of this matter, we will here 
introduce, and explain the workings of the little instrument the 
Gyroscope, the force and demonstrations of which for so long a 
time severely taxed the brain of both hemispheres, until the se- 
cret of the motion was finally discovered by General G. J. Bar- 
nard, and was demonstrated and published by Doctor Levi Eubens 
(both of 'New York) in 1857. The article was first published in 
the June number of the American Journal of Education, of the 
same year, entitled, " Analysis of Rotary Motion as applied to the 
Gyroscope," which article will also be found in the American En- 
cyclopedia. The article being too lengthy for insertion here, we 
will presently give merely a synopsis, in brackets, of the forces as 
given by Doctor Eubens. 

Gravity being the first law of motion, and also being univer- 
sal, holds dominion over all other forces ; and inertia, the reverse 
of gravity, having no power to set anything in motion, nor to stop 
anything once set in motion, forms the two chief points to be con- 
sidered in the movements of the gyroscope. Yet there is one 
other force that enters into the solution, without which the phe- 
nomenal action of the instrument could not be effected, to-wit : 
the force communicated by the hands. 

It is upon this that the action depends for its support, wiueh 
the resistance of gravitation gives the orbito-circular movement, 
and the rotation sustains the disc and ring, suspended in a horizon- 
tal position at the end of the axis, that rests upon the pivot, which 
sustains the whole weight of the instrument extended at right an- 
gles to the perpendicular of the support and base, the point of 
inertia. If the instrument be suspended by a crane, or otherwise 



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from above, and have a small swivel at the end, or point of attach- 
ment, the force and moment of action will be quite as free, and as 
well understood as when set upon the stile and base, and the dan- 
ger of accident by falling will be avoided, while the movement 
will be more extensive, as it can here decline to the nadir point, 
without obstruction. 




In our demonstrations we use one instrument that weighs two 
pounds and nine ounces, and another weighing one pound and 
thirteen ounces, of different construction, and of home manufac- 
ture, but of excellent workmanship. The one is mounted in a ring, 
as usual, the other in a sickle-shaped piece, as a support to the 
disc, thus showing that the ring has nothing whatever to do with 
the motion, other than as a support to the disc. This is really 
the one entire motor power in the instrument. Around the axle 
of the larger disc we wrap a cord or leather string, of four feet in 
length, which encircles it twenty-five times. This we withdraw 
in one second, thus giving the periphery of the disc a run of thir- 
ty-two feet per second. By this it may be seen that we double 
the speed of the falling force at the surface of the earth, which is 
but sixteen feet and a fraction for the first second. This, howev- 
er, is an increasing force, while the motion we give the disc is a 
diminishing one, principally on account of the resistance by grav- 
itation on the rising side of the disc in its rotations; but while 
the momentum of rotation is in excess of the momentum of grav- 
ity it is evident that the wheel cannot fall, but must incline toward 
the source of the resistance, to-wit : the rising side, which it will 
always be found to do. The whole weight now resting on the 



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pivot at one end of the axle, this now becomes the point of inertia, 
around which the momentum of rotation in the disc propels it, 
until the resistance of gravitation overcomes and reduces it to the 
speed of the falling force, at which point the axle assumes the 
vertical and the disc the horizontal position. Where the disc 
continues its motion for an indefinite length of time, this being 
governed by the size of the disc and the freedom of its motion, 
gravitation acts equally on all parts of the disc at the rate of 
16^2- feet for the first second, and as it cannot fall, and the grav- 
ity speed cannot be increased, but the rotation produced by the 
hand communicates an additional momentum of another sixteen 
feet on the downward moving side, while at the same time, it over- 
comes and pushes upward the rising side against the force of 
gravitation at a speed of thirty-two feet per second, thereby 
throwing all the stress of the movement upon the rising side of 
the disc, to which it must now incline in order to equalize the two 
forces of gravitation and rotation in the body of the instrument; 
or we might say it is diverted from its central tendency in the 
opposite direction by the tangential or centrifugal force, and by 
these means they meet on grounds midway, and a circular motion 
is the result. With the instrument the earth is that gravitation 
point, and the pivot on which the instrument rests is the 
point of inertia about which it revolves, as the earth does 
about the sun as its center, and point of inertia. This 
movement cannot be brought about in any other way 
than by a rapid rotation of the disc in its proper place 
in the arrangement of which there is required to be a 
joint of free motion. This may be at the point of rest, or along 
the line connecting it with the rotating body, which, in the gyro- 
scope may be of the ball and socket order, or by a small double- 
swivel, so arranged as to move freely in all directions. But with 
the earth and planets, space is sufficient ) with the instrument the 
point of free motion, being at the end of the cross-bar, with a 
weight at the opposite end to balance the instrument, as seen 
in the engraving, the force of the rotating disc may be seen, when 
it is set in motion and adjusted in the socket, at the end of the 
bar, by the round head of the screw at the end of the axle. The 
other end being elevated as seen in the cut, and there left to 




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itself, it instantly starts off on a tour around the pivot, whirling 
the two-pound weight, bar and all, around in a lively manner, 
and, if hastened by the hand but slightly, it rises to the perpen- 
dicular ; then, as the rotative force diminishes it gradually de- 
clines to the nadir point, where it continues in motion until its 
force is entirely expended. 

[ " One reason why the ro- 
tating body does not fall is 
that in such a body— wherever 
its plane is oblique to the ver- 
tical, gravity is no longer al- 
lowed to act singly, but must 
in every instance enter into 
combination with another 
force. Hence the body cannot 
simply fall, but must move to- 
ward such point in space as 
the combined actions shall determine, and furthermore, the same 
forces which ordinarily produce a vertical fall, here carries a body 
around in a horizontal circle, and sometimes even causes it to ascend. 
The weight of a rotating disc, however, is in all conditions sustained 
by the support and base on which the support rests." " In this ex- 
planation the distance through which the gravitative force acts, has 
been taken as very short, because by experiment and calculation it 
can be shown that, unless the weight of the ring and other attach- 
ments is very great, the whole downward action of gravity on the 
disc is very slight compared with that of the rotation first imparted 
by the hand, sometimes as small as in the ratio of one to forty, sixty, 
or more."] 

This is Dr. Euben's and Gen. Barnard's opinion, as given in 
the Encyclopedia. And it will thus be seen that rotation of the 
disc in the gyroscope is the principal force, next to gravity at 
least, and without which the phenomenon vanishes j but, with it, 
the exemplification of planetary motion is easy, and can be made 
quite clear and easy to be understood by most persons that have 
not been biased by previous speculative and incomprehensible 
theories. 

It is presumed that few if any in this age, will question the 
rotation of the earth about its center of gravity as being the 
cause of the succession of day and night ; and perhaps as few 
can give any reason for that rotation, or tell us upon what it de- 



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pends. Be that as it may, it is certain that few do pretend to 
give any other reason than that of a primitive impulse; and even 
on this, all fail to tell us how or by what means that impulse is 
kept in action, or continues to produce its effect so perpetually. 
Yet, to most minds, on due reflection, it will appear evident that 
in so constant an action, there must be as constant a cause or 
force at work tending to the end of perpetuating that rotation, 
and keeping it ever constant and equal, else the opposing force 
of gravitation would sooner or later have overcome, subdued and 
extinguished that rotation, and thereby have destroyed the equi- 
librium upon which the movements so evidently depend for their 
continuance and perpetuity. 

Nature's laws are harmonious ; certain causes are followed 
by certain effects. Those effects sometimes, nay, frequently, be- 
come causes of other and more stupendous results than the origi- 
nal cause had produced. A spark, the result of friction by flint 
and steel, may be the cause of exploding the mine ; yet the spark 
as the effect of friction, when compared with the effects of the 
explosion, is very insignificant. 

It has rarely, if ever, been hinted that the rays of the sun could 
possibly be the cause of so stupendous a result as that of the 
rotation of the earth and other worlds, that so evidently depend 
upon those rays for light, heat, electricity, etc. Yet, however 
hazardous it may appear, we venture the opinion, without sera- 
scruple, that it is even so. And why not ? We know enough of 
the sun's influence in many other respects, not to wonder at such 
being the case. We must acknowledge the sun's power and influ- 
ence over all vegetable and animal existence to be such as that 
we could not live an hour without its influence. If it were not 
for the sun all things would at once relapse into chaos, and an 
eternal frigid night would be the result ; but by his presence all is 
vivacity, light and life. 

The sun is, undoubtedly, the prime moving force in this sys- 
tem, holding, directing, governing, and we might say, sustaining 
all by his presence and power. One half of our globe is constant- 
ly lighted up, (in a successive round), by his presence, while the 
opposite half is as constantly as deprived of his influence in a direct 
manner, thus perpetuating a succession of day and night, with all 
their advantages and peculiarities. 



-16- 

Mr. Lockyer, in his "Elements of Astronomy" says : " The 
sun's heat, and the earth's rotation on its axis, are, in the main, 
the causes of all atmospheric disturbances." p. 107, sec. 206. And 
on p. 112, sec. 215, he adds : "It is the presence of vapor in our 
lower atmosphere that renders life possible." 

The sun's central force of gravity is well enough known, but 
the force that rotates to the earth and other planets, we think is 
not so well understood and by most persons is yet to be learned, 
even by some who have written extensively on physics and even 
on astronomy. 

Now, while such force is not understood, or is ignored, there 
can be no clearness of view or definite expression in regard to 
either cause or effect. But with a definite knowledge of such 
force, all becomes clear and easy, and by the majority is readily 
received and is satisfactory. 

In order to illustrate the rotative force of the earth, let us 
suppose a meridian line from pole to pole at all and every point 
passing over us through space, always visible at mid-day only. 
Then, as we rotate eastwardly, one-half of the twenty-four hours 
will be spent on the one side in passing away from that merid- 
ianal line, and the other half will be spent in returning*by the 
circle in toward the sun, or in approaching the point from 
whence we started. In making this circuit we have traveled by 
rotation twenty-four thousand miles, twelve thousand of which 
removed us eight thousand miles farther away from the sun than 
we were at the starting-point, then by the balance of the circuit 
we are brought back to the starting point, eight thousand miles 
by a direct line nearer to the sun than we were at twelve o'clock 
last night ) and we are here again with our line visible over our 
heads. 

By this it is evident that one-half of our trip has been made 
in a direction in opposition to the sun's attraction or gravitating 
force and power, and the other half has been made in the direc- 
tion agreeing with the attractions. 

Now our globe is estimated to weigh six sextillion tons. 
One half of this vast amount is constantly moving out from the 
sun against his attraction ; then, by a returning course, in toward 
it, as if in obedience to his attraction, in the same way and man- 



-17- 

ner as we have described our trip from noon to midnight, and 
from that to noon again. 

Some theorists say : "the sun's equal attraction on both 
sides of the earth at the same time balance each other." If so, 
there could be no rotation from that source and we must search 
for another source of the force causing rotation to the earth. 

In the philosophy of motion, if the attractions are equal on 
both sides, (which none will dispute), there must be a retarding 
force on one side, or an accelerating force on the other, or both, 
in order to produce rotation in a body of any size or form. Else 
there could be no rotation of that body. 

Again, if a retarding force exists on one side, and an accele- 
rating force on the other, then the forces would agree and the 
motion would be equally facilitated, and lasting as the forces are 
continuous ; and if the body acted upon be free to move in all 
directions, it would incline toward the side of the resistance in 
obedience to that force, and would, therefore, be diverted from a 
direct projectile course as the result of rotation opposed by grav- 
itation, and by this means a circular motion around the point of 
resistance would be the result, as is found to be case with the 
planets. 

This resistance also determines the direction of the projec- 
tile, or centrifugal force, as it is called, from its tendency to propel 
the body in a straight line at right angles to the source of gravi- 
tation. The tendency of a rapidly rotating or revolving body to 
fly from its center in every direction is here determined upon a sin- 
gle point by this same attraction j but here the two forces unite in 
the circular action, and an elipsis is the result, which, like the 
true circle, has no end, but has a perpetually repeated motion in 
space, with an eternal succession of changes in speed, but without 
the least possible effect on the action of rotation. Observers 
have found the time of our earth's rotation not to have changed 
to the amount of the one hundredth part of one second in the 
last two thousand years, while the progression is constantly 
changing, as is evidently the case, every instant of time. When 
at aphelion the motion is least rapid, but from that point as it ad- 
vances toward the perihelion, its force and motion are contin- 
ually on the increase until the planet reaches that point ; then, as 



- 18- 

it turns around the sun and moves off on its outward course, it 
begins to loose speed, as before. This being a constantly repeated 
annual change, keeps the earth constantly on a change of speed. 
But not so with the rotation : the force that produces it is as con- 
stant as the rotation, and unchanging in character. 

As yet it appears unsettled in respect to this force or 
movement of rotation, especially in regard to its origin, and the 
cause that produces it and keeps it in so constant and unvarying 
a condition ; but it has generally been attributed to an original 
or primitive impulse communicated by the hand of the Creator in 
ushering it into space. This theory is as unsatisfactory as it is 
arbitrary, and implies that the planet was first created outside of 
space, and that on being ushered into space it was given a rotary 
motion by an impulsive force, that is to be perpetual, lasting, and 
coequal with the existence of the planet itself. 

]STow, an impulse is not a permanent force but an instantane- 
ous influence, lasting but a brief space and then ceasing, and in 
the nature of things cannot be a permanent and continuous force. 
Therefore, "we look for another;" and for this purpose let us 
see wjiat we can discover as an operative force in the sun's light 
and heat shed upon the earth in the form of his rays. 

The sun's presence is always attended with an increase of 
heat, and by the expansion of most substances upon which his 
rays fall. Many things are entirely changed in point of charac- 
ter and condition. Solids are reduced to fluids, fluids are vapor- 
ized and caused to float off in the current of the atmosphere, or 
are entirely volatilized and dissipated. Clouds are the result of 
the vaporization, by the sun's rays falling upon the waters of the 
oceans, lakes, rivers, marshes, and other wet surfaces. Yapor, in 
a general sense, is an invisible, elastic fluid, rendered aeriform by 
heat, and capable of being brought back to the fluid or solid state 
by cold. It is in this sense we use this term. Clouds are par- 
tially condensed vapor; fogs and mists are the results of still 
greater degrees of condensation ; but when it reaches the point 
of rain it has returned to the fluid state, and is falling drops of 
water. The next few degrees of cold would result in snow or 
hail, as frozen water from the clouds. 

The mind of the young reader may now be better prepared 
for the following brief statement : 



-19- 

As the sun's rays are being constantly shed upon the one-half 
of the earth that is turned in his direction, all parts of the earth 
have an average of twelve hours of day on that side, succeeded by 
twelve hours of night ; so that the sun, by his light and heat, is 
constantly evaporizing water on that side upon which his light is 
falling — according to Johnson's and Maury's computation by the 
rainfall of one year that is equal to 111,513,600,000 tons every 
hour. And this vast amount is not all ; as Maury, in his recent 
Geography of the Heavens, so clearly shows, but this is enough 
for our purposes. Now, this is not for one hour only, but is the 
perpetual waste on one side, and return on the other, of water 
evaporated during the day and returned in the form of rain, the 
most of which is returned on the night side, while all of it is the 
result of the sun's rays on the day side of the earth, that by its 
diurnal motion is constantly moving out from the sun's central 
attraction, while on the other, or opposite side, which is moving 
in toward the sun at the same rate and speed, about two-thirds of 
the condensed vapor, in the form of rain, is falling in upon the sur- 
face, thereby adding the major part of the above-mentioned one 
hundred eleven billion, five hundred thirteen million, six hundred 
thousand tons, every hour, for the sun's attraction to act upon, 
on the side that is now turning in toward his center, and thus 
assisting in the grand process of perpetual rotation of the earth 
on its axis. This may have been incidentally inferred from the 
tables of Johnston and Maury, elsewhere referred to, but are not 
fully brought out in detail, as their tables refer to the quantity of 
water, and have no particular reference to the earth's motion. 

It would not at first, appear probable that there is twice 
the amount of rainfall by night as there is by day, nevertheless 
our observations for the past nineteen months show it to be 
so. Our tables for nineteen months ending Dec. 1st., 1881,. 
recording the rainfall from six a. m. to six p. m., and per con- 
tra, show this to be the average during the time as above given, 
which is the length of my record and gives me sixty-five inches 
for the total. Of this, forty-two inches has fallen during the 
night period, and only twenty -three inches, by the day period. 
I am satisfied from observations I have taken of this matter that 
at eight in the morning and eight at night would be the correct 



-20- 

time to divide by, as that time in the morning is as early as the 
sun's influence is sufficiently established for a current of vapor 
to arise by his heat j while eight at night is as early as the vapor 
would cease to arise from the effect of the day's heat, or by the 
cooling off of the waters at night. Therefore I shall hereafter 
enter my records at those hours. The difference will be very 
small, but I think will be more correct as a standard to be gov- 
erned by. 

It is true that we, here in Winchester, Scott County, Illinois, 
have not had our usual amount of rain, but even with this 
amount the difference is so perceptible as to surprise most men 
when their attention is first called to it ; and it is astonishing to 
most persons, that it has not been noticed by observers before 
this. 

The amount of the rotative force arising in the above causes, 
is so vast as to utterly astonish most persons when first compre- 
hended, and few would be willing to volunteer such a statement, 
yet it will be found to be true by such as will fairly investigate 
the matter for themselves. 

Johnston, in the article above quoted says : " The annual 
rainfall in the five zones is equal to a depth of five feet over the 
entire earth;" and Maury says — "It is sufficient to fill a lake 
twenty-four thousand miles long and t^^enty-three thousand 
miles wide to the depth of sixteen feet." Now the length of the 
lake given is equal to the circuit of the earth at the equator, and 
if we divide the width by the days of the year, (365,) we have a 
quotient of eight and a fraction, which fraction together with 
the fraction of a day we will drop or cancel for brevity's sake, 
and we have the equivalent of a lake eight miles wide and six- 
teen feet deep extending entirely around the earth at the equa- 
tor, as the rainfall for each day in the year. 

Now let us divide this by the hours in the day, twenty -four, 
and we find that we have the equivalent of one thousand miles 
of this lake eight miles wide and sixteen feet deep for every hour 
of the day and the night also. This it will be found is equal to one 
hundred and eleven billions, five hundred and thirteen millions, 
six hundred thousand tons per hour, continuously. 

Now let us see what some scientists of our own times have 
said of Vaporization, and other matters connected therewith : 



-21- 

Professor John H. Tice, of St. Louis, Mo., has given us the 
most thorough and best account in detail of this process, that it 
has been our fortune to meet with. He, in the course of his 
remarks says : 

- " The vapor that forms the clouds which distil the rains that 
water the earth, filling the rivers an til they overflow, and clothing 
the fields with verdure, comes from evaporation on the surface of the 
ocean." " At the city of St. Louis fully one thousand miles from the 
ocean, whence the vapor comes, the rainfall on each acre averages 
about seven t'housand tons annually, or about 7,000,000 tons to the 
square mile. The amount of rainfall in the State of Missouri, hence, 
is over 300,000,000,000 tons annually." 

" Now this enormous quantity of water is not only vaporized over 
the ocean, but is transported a thousand miles into the continent, 
and then raised to an elevation of from two and a half to three miles 
above the earth. When the amount of rainfall in Missouri is supple- 
mented by the quantity that falls in the adjoining States in the Mis- 
sissippi valley alone, the quantity is so stupendously great, that the 
human mind is utterly incapable of conceiving an adequate idea of it. 
This inconceivably great quantity has to be augmented by the rain- 
fall over the globe to obtain the total amount of work done by the 
Solar Energy in vaporizing water and in raising and transporting it to 
all parts of the earth. Add to this the weight and volume of air 
moved by drawing down and propelling it along the surface of the 
earth and then hoisting it up again — an amount of work requiring 
an expenditure of far greater energy than the forestated aqeuous 
movement — and even then we have not the total amount of Solar En- 
ergy expended upon the earth and its atmosphere. But taking trans- 
portation and elevation alone, as to distance, weight and quantity, 
and we have so stupendous an amount of work done by the sun, that 
the whole human family, all the oxen, mules, horses and steam en- 
gines in the world, could not perform one millionth part of it. With 
these facts staring us in the face, why should we ask what becomes 
of the energy of the sun that is shed upon the earth in the form of 
light ? The inquiry is what becomes of the light shed by the sun 
upon the ocean ? A part of it, perhaps all of it, becomes transformed 
into heat, but if so then it does not persist long enough, as heat, to 
become sensible as such, but according to the universal law of dual 
evolution, electricity is simultaneously evolved with heat; but why 
does not heat accumulate and the water-surface of the ocean become 
as hot as the land ? The answer is, that, whichever may be the case, 
whether the transmutation of light be immediately into constitut- 
ism, or mediately through heat, the final result is that the light 
passes into the constitutive force and its accompaniment, electricity, 
which is necessary to form the incessant stream of vapor issuing 



- -22 - 

from the ocean, like from a great cauldron, and spreading itself over 
the whole globe. This stream of vapor forms clouds in the sky whose 
rains water the thirsty land, giving fertility to the soil and clothing 
the continents with verdure." 

The Professor goes on, very correctly, to say : 

" Operations upon so gigantic a scale, so uniform, so universal and 
ever efficient, cannot take place casually ; but they must be inevita- 
ble consequences of natural agencies, established and incorporated in 
the constitution of the universe. Efficient causes must not only be 
established there, but natural affinities between force and matter that 
work in harmony with those causes, facilitating their operations and 
ensuring their efficiency " in all things. 

Those remarks of Professor Tice are of such importance 
and so true, as to preclude all necessity for comment; we, there- 
fore forego the attempt. 

We have now collected an amount of evidence of a force or 
forces, superior to and beyond the power of most minds to com- 
prehend. Our next effort shall be an attempted application, and 
an elucidation of those forces for the better view and understand- 
ing of those who wish to further investigate the workings of na- 
ture's laws and forces. 

On our first page it is stated that motion consists of a con- 
tinued change of place in regard to a fixed point; and that it is 
the result of force. In planetary motion, ihe sun is that fixed 
point, in regard to which the earth is constantly in motion, both 
by rotation on its axis, and rovolution in its orbit around that 
luminary. The force that produces these motions has, in our 
opinion been faithfully portrayed in the remarks of Professor 
Tice, as above quoted, and only require an application, to show 
how it is done. 

It may be essential that we here call to mind the fact that 
one half of our globe is in a regular rotative* order under the 
sun's rays, and thus receiving his light and heat, the effect of 
which is an expansion of most substances rendering them speci- 
fically light, as well as the vaporization of the vast amount of wa- 
ter as above stated, from that side; and the attraction of the sun 
is as constantly more effective there, as it is eight thousand miles 
nearer to the side that is next him than while on the opposite 
or right side that is now turned from his presence ; and the direc; 



-23- 

tion of the attractions on that side being now in the opposite and 
central direction, has its effect also, while the current of the at- 
mosphere is constantly in the same direction as that of the rota- 
tion and moving at a greater rate of speed (by about an average 
of ton miles an hour), so that the vapor raised by the sun's light 
and heat is wafted forward in the line of rotation faster than the 
surface of the earth moves by rotation, thereby assisting in the 
proeesss of the rotatory motion, not only by moving the amount of 
water approximately mentioned above, from that side as so much 
material, but by transporting it forward faster than it would have 
gone by rotation. 

If it were not for those movements, the two sides of the earth 
east and west of the mid-day meridian would be equally balanced, 
and the sun's central attraction, by its equal force on both sides, 
would soon put a stop to, and end the rotation, by bringing the 
earth home to itself. But by relieving the receding side of the 
enormous amount of 111,513,600,000 ton's weight .per hour, and 
allowing a similar amount to be added to the advancing side, the 
attractive force on the two sides becomes unequal and rotation is 
the inevitable result. 

An equal amount of attraction by the sun upon all parts of 
the earth on which the light is falling at any one time, precludes 
the possibility of rotation by that force alone; but when we 
consider the effect of evaporization in connection with gravitation, 
the tables are at once reversed ; for gravitation exerts its force 
on all parts in an exact ratio to the amount of matter and the 
square of its distance ; but in rotation, one side of the revolving 
body is found to be moving in the same direction as that of its 
gravitation, while the opposite side is as constantly moving off in 
the opposite direction and in resistance to the gravitating forces. 
It necessarily requires much more force to propel the outward and 
upward than it does the inward and downward tending sides of 
so large a body as the world. These are facts any person who is 
not biased by previously received opinions, can see and compre- 
hend. 

But as there are those who will cling to old theories ; and 
we, therefore, wishing to reduce this essay to a worked out theo- 
rem, by proving our positions, have taken the liberty of quoting 



-24- 

to some extent, authors who have written withottt any view or 
expectation of being referred to in the light to which we have 
applied their remarks. Nevertheless their writings are none the 
less valuable for our purposes. 

With the evidence of such facts and forces as those referred 
to before us, and when nature herself provides such vast means 
for observation, how can any one deny their legitimate effect, and 
fall back on the idea of an impulse force in lieu thereof, for our 
our rotation and consequent projection in space, is to us a prob- 
lem past our solution. 

It is true that but a few years have passed since suitable 
instruments for observing and tabulating the amount of rainfall, 
together with the processes of evaporization of water by the sun 
and the recondensation by its absence have been invented, and the 
the process known ; but as we are now in possession of those 
facilities and facts, it does appear to us that we ought to make use 
of them in the establishing of plausible theories, and to the oblit- 
eration of such indefinite and undefinable expressions as that of 
an " original primitive impulse," &c, and thus by lopping off those 
primitive ideas and supplementing them with practical teachings 
of physical laws and the operation of the forces of nature, direc- 
ting the mind of the rising generations in a new and better 
channel of thought, the better to fit them for usefulness in life. 

Observation has determined the rotation of our earth at the 
equator to be one thousand miles to the hour : here in the north 
temperate zone it is not quite so much ; but it is here about seven 
hundred and seventy or eighty miles to the hour. To this add 
the average velocity of the wind in an easterly direction at ten 
miles an hour, and it will be seen that the vapor will, (as above 
stated), be wafted forward of the earth's motion, and in the same 
direction with it, thereby rendering the side of the earth that is 
now moving out from the sun, light, by the amount of the water 
evaporated, as above shown. For it is clear that, as the sun is 
the fixed point in regard to the earth's motion, so, therefore, 
to any given point on the earth's surface where the sun is 
at meridian, all that side or portion of the earth eastward of said 
meridian, wili be moving away or outward from the sun, and all 
that portion west of that point around to the nadir must be 



-25- 

turning in toward the sun at the same rate -, so that at the nadir 
or midnight point, now eight thousand miles farther away from 
the sun than when at the zenith or noon point, the sun's influ- 
ence or force, will, in all respects, be less effective. All solids 
will there be more compact, because of the loss of heat j fluids 
will tend to the point of solids ; vapors to condensation, and the 
form of fluids, and all things to an increase of specific gravity by 
contraction. Therefore, that side of the globe will become 
more subject to the sun's attractive force, by the amount of in- 
crease in specific gravity, as well as in quantity of material, be- 
cause of the sun's central attraction ; while the opposite side, to 
the amount of water vaporized there, will be rendered light, and 
will thus act as a rotative force to the earth. And indeed, we 
have every right to claim both as rotative forces. 

And, in addition to all this, the force and direction of the 
sun's attraction is also deviated, so that at night it agrees with 
and is in the same direction as that of the earth, so that all float- 
ing material in the atmosphere or on the surface of the earth has 
the attractive influence of both sun and earth in the same direc- 
tion, thereby vastly increasing its tendency to return to the sur- 
face of the earth j whereas, during the day, the attractions being 
in opposite directions, floating material would necessarily be in- 
fluenced accordingly. 

Eut of the sun's influence upon our atmosphere, I will quote 
from Lockyer's Elements of Astronomy, page 108, sec. 208, as 
follows : 

" Now, how are the winds set in motion? The equatorial regions 
are the part of the earth which is most heated ; consequently the air 
there beomes rarified and ascends, and a surface wind sets in toward 
the equator on both sides to fill its place ; these are the trade winds. 
The air thus wafted toward the equator is soon itself heated and 
ascends, and accumulating in the higher regions, flows as an upper 
current toward either pole, thus are produced the anti-trades which 
in the regions beyond the calms of Cancer and Capricorn, descend to 
the earth's surface. The equatorial belt some five degrees wide, in 
which the heated air is constantly ascending, is remarkable for daily 
rains, often accompanied with thunder and lightning." 

Section 209: 

" If the earth did not turn on its axis we should still have the 



-26- 

trade- winds, but they would blow due north and south from the poles 
to the equator. Their direction is modified by the earth's rotation. 
Coming from higher latitudes with the less rapid rotary motion which 
there belongs to the earth's surface to the equatorial regions which 
have a more rapid motion, the earth, as it were, slips from under them 
toward the east and the winds lagging behind, though really themselves 
also moving eastward, appear to come from the East, forming north- 
east winds north of the equator, and south-east winds south of it. In 
like manner the anti-trades endowed with the more rapid rotary mo- 
tion of the equator as they go toward the poles, arrive at regions 
where the rotary motion is less rapid ; the earth's surface, therefore, 
now lags behind, and the winds appear to blow, as they really do, 
toward the East, forming south-west winds in the northern hemi- 
sphere and north-west winds in the southern." 

Section 210 : 

" It is the sun, therefore, that sets all this atmospheric machin- 
ery in motion, by heating the equatorial regions of the earth." 

Article 206, last clause : 

" The sun's heat and the earth's rotation on its axis are the main 
causes of the atmospheric disturbances." 

So much for Mr. Lockyer. 

Now let us see what Mr. Maury, of our own time says. On 
page 44, of his new Physical Geography of 1881, you will find 
him to give utterance to the following : 

" In studying the operations of the physical machinery you will 
find that the principles of action and reaction, and the powers of an- 
tagonistic forces play an important part in it, as they do in our sys- 
tem of mechanics. The harmonies of nature pursued by antagonistic 
forces. By them the earth is hung upon nothing, and sent whirling 
through space. The animal and vegetable kingdoms derive their 
powers from the harmony of their discord, for each lives by undoing 
the work of the other." 

He again, while speaking of the sun's influence, says: 

" Heat is the great motive power of the world, and the sun is the 
great center and source of it all. His warmth keeps the sea liquid, 
and all the storms which agitate the waters derive their power from 
him: He lifts the rivers from the sea, and builds the glaciers upon 
the mountains, and thus the cataract and the avalanche shoot with 
an energy derived from the sun. All this power displayed on the 
earth is but the two billion three hundred millionth part of that which 
is continually exerted by the sun, for this is the portion of his rays 



-27- 

which, as he darts them out in all directions, are intercepted by the 
earth." 

Now let any one who will compare those facts with the con- 
clusions we have elsewhere already advanced, and we think they 
must be satisfied and convinced of the truth of our proposition. 

But to return to the secondaries of which we will take our 
moon as an example. Here we have a compound, and to some 
extent a complicated or double motion ; .and on close examination 
we find the forces to be of the same character, and just what we 
might have expected and looked for from the results. But on 
consulting Mr. Lockyer, we find him to say on page 277, article 
506: 

" The moon's orbit is an exact representation of what the path 
of our cannon ball would be at the moon's distance from the earth." 

* * * " In fact, the moon's path is the result of an origi- 
nal impulse in the direction, at right angles to, and a constant attrac- 
tion toward the earth." 

Here we would ask Mr. Lockyer what becomes of the sun's 
attraction upon the moon in this instance '/ We suppose, how- 
ever, he has declined it in favor of the primitive impulse j if so, 
we ask what reason he has for so doing? Hence, we again 
suppose he does it for the same reason that Ogilby gives for the 
earth's rotation — " Seeing that he could find no force in physical 
nature adequate to that end." But in this case, it appears to us 
there is ample proof of a sufficient force for that end, and to that 
purpose, in the double attractions of the sun and earth on one 
hand and their separate attractions on the other hand, upon the 
moon itself in its double orbital movements around the earth, 
and along with it around the sun as it is known to do. Much as 
we admire the writings of Mr. Lockyer we cannot approve of his 
idea of a primitive impulse in regard to the moon's action and of 
the " cannon-ball " movement he refers to. 

Now this movement of the moon and earth together around 
the sun is evidently the result of the double attraction as above 
stated. The earth and moon are always, at any point in the 
earth's orbit, moving at right angles to the sun's center and the 
earth's position in its orbit, while the moon has an eliptical orbit 
around the earth also, constituting the earth its centripetal point 



-28- 

and the sun as its centrifugal tendency, keeping it from falling 
into the earth ; much as our earth's force of rotation by its cen- 
trifugal tendency keeps both itself and the moon from falling 
into the sun. 

The earth and the moon are traveling as it were together, 
in the journey around the sun, at a mean distance of about 93,- 
000,000 miles from it. This circuit they perform in one year 
during which time the moon passes around the earth in the same 
direction, from west to east nearly thirteen times, at the distance 
of two hundred and forty thousand miles from it. The moon, 
therefore, must move much faster through space than the earth 
does in its orbitular circuit around the sun. Burrett estimates 
it to be fourteen times that of the earth in its orbit. This is 
greater than we make it, but it does certainly move much faster 
through space in its compound motion than any other body 
known to us. Its motion, too, is very irregular, as on one incline 
around the earth it loses in speed so as to fall back behind the 
earth, while on £he other side, it out-speeds the earth so as to 
overtake and pass by it, making an increase over the earth's 
speed, in the amount of the full diameter of the circle of its orbit 
in one hall of its circle around the earth. 

Now, all this change in speed and of position, happens about 
as follows : The sun's attractive force on the moon and earth is 
estimated to be as seventeen is to forty-one nearly and relatively as 
above stated ; and, while the moon is between the sun and earth, 
it is attracted in opposite directions in the ratio of the above fig- 
ures; it therefore slackens in speed, but is still passing forward in 
the direction of the earth's orbit, and is attracted in that direc- 
tion by the sun's influence; but as the earth is following just be- 
hind, it is by the amount of its attractive force, pulling the moon 
in toward itself in the ratio of its for ce ; thus acting upon the 
moon as a retarding force until it circles around behind the earth 
where the moon now receives the full force of the earth and sun's 
attractions jointly in the same direction, and is thus pulled for- 
ward at an increased speed ; while as it passes the earth on the 
outside of its orbit it is being held in by the earth's sidelike 
force and turned in a circle around between it and the sun, as be- 
fore. This is in a perpetual succession, always with the same side 
of the moon toward the earth. 



-29- 

~Now as all unequally balanced bodies are found to pass 
through the atmosphere, or through a liquid medium, with their 
heavy parts in front, and as the moon is more under the direct in- 
fluence of the earth's attractive force than it is of that of the sun, 
and seeing that it always presents the same side toward the earth, 
and is perpetually passing in a curve around us, with no other 
motion of rotation than that produced by the orbital circuit, it 
appears very plausible to suppose it to be of an unequal weight 
in the direction of its orbital diameter. Then as the earth is its 
centripetal point and the sun its centrifugal force, her eliptical 
motion about the earth, without an additional force by rotation, 
becomes a natural and an inevitable result j and as there is no 
evidence to the contrary, we claim that it is very reasonably 
thus situated. Consequently, in this case, there is no call for an 
impulse force, primitive or otherwise, and with Steele we would 
say : *" This careful fitting, whereby the plan is always modified to 
accomplish an end, is everywhere characteristic of nature, and is 
a continued revelation of its common author." 

Then, to recapitulate : 

The sun's force, by his attractive power on the earth and 
moon is found to be as 4 1 t° ^\ relatively. The moon being 
only 240,000 miles from the earth, and averaging only this 
same amount of being ninety-three millions of miles from the sun, 
the earth being thirteen times the size of the moon and 400 times 
nearer to it, must evidently exert much more influence over the mo- 
tions of the moon by the square of their distances than the sun 
does in a direct manner. The moon, therefore, moves about the 
earth as its center of motion, but still is obedient to the sun's in- 
fluence to the extent of his attractive power and distance, which 
is just sufficient to fill the measure of her centrifugal force. 

The moon, too, is found to be void of water, and consequently 
of an atmosphere ; therefore it could not rotate on its axis as the 
planets do, by the forces we have suggested in the former part 
of this essay. Our satelite, therefore, evidently circulates with- 
out an axial rotation, save only by a circuit with its most ponder- 
able part foremost, as structures are found to do in our atmos- 

* Steele's Astronomy, page 176. 



-30- 

phere, and are supposed to do so in space. The void through which 
the earth and moon are passing does not destroy gravitation ; it 
only modifies it by the amount of matter, and the square of the 
distances. The body, therefore, presents its most heavy parts to 
the attractive force, and the lighter parts lag behind in obedience 
to the ethereal elements that are supposed to fill all space. 

But, to proceed to the conclusion : 

We have shown by the gyroscope and a synopsis of Doctor 
Bubens' and G-en. Barnard's demonstrations of its movements, 
that rotation in connection with gravitation, when acting through 
proper media and upon a suitable body, necessarily result in a 
circular movement similar to, and with a traveling force and mo- 
mentum of action very much resembling the motions of the 
earth and other planets, or we might say, the rotation of the 
disc in connection with gravity, results in a movement which, 
when applied to the earth, represents its annual motion round 
sun ; the rotary force meeting with the resistance of gravitation 
at a certain point in the rotation, in such a manner as to deviate 
the body from a direct tendency, and thereby to set up a travel- 
ing movement midway between those two forces, and thus to 
propel it around a point of inertia outside of its own body, and 
at a distance from its surface ; and thus to sustain it in an orbit- 
ular circuit, and while the rotative force continues proportional 
to that of gravitation the movement is continuous and uniform. 

By the quotations from Professor Tice, we have shown the 
process of evaporization of water by the sun from the ocean and 
by what force it is raised and transported to all parts of the earth, 
and in such vast quantities as to outvie the human mind to con- 
ceive an adequate idea of it j and that the process has been car- 
ried on in such a silent and unobtrusive manner as not to have 
been detected or even suspected by man, in all the many thousand 
years he has been a dweller on earth. We have shown by John- 
ston the annual amount of water returned to the earth by the pro- 
cess of condensation to be equal to five feet over the entire earth, 
and that Maury computes it to be sufficient to fill a lake of the length 
of twenty-four thousand miles and three thousand miles in width, 
to the depth of sixteen feet annually. Now, an easy process will 
show this to make an average of 111,513,600,000 tons per hour 



-31- 

continually, and this not the full amount vaporized by the sun, 
but only the amount recondensed and returned to the earth in the 
form of rain only, while mist, dew, vegetable absorption, &c, is 
not there included. 

It must also-be remembered, that all the vapor that forms the 
clouds from whence the rain comes, is the work of the sun's light 
and heat shed upon the earth and seas by day, without which 
there would be no clouds, nor rain to fall, by night or by day. 
Then again, as is evident from my rain table as above shown, there 
is twice the amount of rain during the night to what falls by day. 
By this it will be further seen, that all the vaporization is done on 
that side of the earth that is, by its rotation, moving out from the 
sun ; and this, together with the increase of specific gravity on 
the opposite and inward tending side, by contraction of solids 
from loss of heat; the condensation of the vaporized water, by 
the shades of the night and return of most of the same to the 
earth as ponderable and uniform forces for the sun's attraction. 
All this we have shown to be and to act as powerful rotative 
forces on the globe, and it is to this influence, by the presence of 
the sun on the one side, and the shades of night on the other, we 
claim the title of u Sunshine and Shadow." 

In addition to all this we have shown the direction of the 
earth's rotation j the general current of the atmosphere's move- 
ments, of clouds and general direction of rain and storm centers 
to be eastwardly, and hence the right application of all as rotat- 
ive forces to the end that they all favor rotation in that direction. 
And further, it is asserted by most observers that all the primar- 
ies are acted upon and influenced in their movements by the same 
or like forces ; that they all contain large bodies of water, and 
of course have an atmosphere as our world has ; that they also 
rotate and revolve about and around the sun, as our world does, 
and no doubt, by the same or similar forces ; and that the satel- 
ites follow and obey similar causes and forces with similar mo- 
tions to ours in all respects, and therefore, they only rotate by an 
axial rotation, once for each revolution around the primary, as 
our moon does, in passing around us once a month. Hence the 
same laws and forces we have given for our moon applies to them 
with the same, or similar force as to ours. The passing round 



-32- 

in a circuit is not really a rotation as on an axis, but is simply a 
revolution by a circuit. Our earth not only revolves on its axis, 
but it revolves around the sun also ; therefore it rotates and re- 
volves by an axial daily, and at the same time a circular or yearly 
motion around the sun. This is really axial rotation and orbital 
revolution. Whereas the motion of the moon is only orbital 
around the earth monthly, and with the earth about the sun an- 
nually, and it therefore can hardly be said to rotate axillarially as 
the earth does. 

Thus we have given and now present to the thoughtful reader 
our views and reasoning upon some of the principal forces and 
points in planetary motion. If our views are reasonable and phi- 
losophic we ask their acceptance and adoption. If they are erro- 
neous and unphilosophic we ask their confutation by a fair and 
just presentation of facts without fiction or guess-work, that 
the community may be benefited thereby and posterity be saved 
from an error that might be lasting and detrimental. 



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